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I thought it was time for the book two thread. Please use this thread to discuss your book two experiences. upload your music etc.

A note from the first Alfred thread...

Although this is the Adult Beginners forum, many here seem to be very advanced or just amazingly gifted. I don't see many true beginners here (Like me) so I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to the "True" beginner, especially those using Alfred's Adult Piano Course Level one, book one.

Mark, i went through book 2, and to tell you the truth, i only liked a few of the pieces in it. it was a real drag for me. so hopefully you have some disicipline to drudge through the pieces you dont like:) as if you press on and move on to book 3, book 3 really rocks, i like most of the music in it and its alot of fun book 2 i see as a stepping stone to playing some really fun music this is just my opinion i am sure alot of people like most of the music in book 2, but not me. i did like canon in d, light and blue and brahms lullaby because i started playing the lullaby at night to put my little one to sleep and it worked everytime enjoy and press on as it only gets better from there:)

Originally posted by funburger: Mark, i went through book 2, and to tell you the truth, i only liked a few of the pieces in it. it was a real drag for me. so hopefully you have some disicipline to drudge through the pieces you dont like:) as if you press on and move on to book 3, book 3 really rocks, i like most of the music in it and its alot of fun book 2 i see as a stepping stone to playing some really fun music this is just my opinion i am sure alot of people like most of the music in book 2, but not me. i did like canon in d, light and blue and brahms lullaby because i started playing the lullaby at night to put my little one to sleep and it worked everytime enjoy and press on as it only gets better from there:) [/b]

Discipline is the key word. I was being a little sarcastic when I said book 2 would be fun. But I'm so determined to learn piano, I put up with songs that I really don't like...

And I love what you said about the stepping stone, Its like if you do the work, the reward will be waiting for you...

Thanks for the motivation!!

PS: I'm on pace to finish book one in about 6 months. Book 2 looks like it could be a year long project.

hi that is about where i am at.count me in . have to mention the teacher(ex) said i needed a challenge and picked canon(end of book) which i am tryingto refine-didnt find it hard except one section. at the moment 9just today) going back as i have had a break and have forgotten a fair bit!~ but i love it especially on my neww piano.

I got trough book 1 not to long ago. I think it costed me about 6 - 7 months.And now I am in book 2. I like Roman Holiday and Goodmorning, also The Wals from Musetta.Anyway i'm not working in the book anymore , I decided to pause it. I dont find the songs challenging, I'm doing some harder stuff now (teacher says im prty amazing for such a new student), like préludes and soundtracks from movies. Perhaps after a while i will go back to book 2 and just play it rapidly so it does not cost me much time. Oh by the way the Entertainer is lovely

I am almost finished with Alfred's 2- just (I think) 2 more pieces and the Canon to go. Not much more than that, anyway. I found a few pieces that I liked enough to go back to them now and again, but most were in the "learn it to get the theory/technique down" category. I also have one of the supplemental books and have worked on a couple pieces from that. I don't know if my teacher will have me move on to book 3 or not. We'll see. I also usually have one or two things not in the Alfred's book to work on, so I get some diversity in my practice.

_________________________
-Mak

1889 Mason & Hamlin screwstringer uprightKawai MP-4 digital

---------------------------When life hands you lemons, throw them back and add some of your own. Stupid life.

Originally posted by IrishMak: I am almost finished with Alfred's 2- just (I think) 2 more pieces and the Canon to go. Not much more than that, anyway. I found a few pieces that I liked enough to go back to them now and again, but most were in the "learn it to get the theory/technique down" category. I also have one of the supplemental books and have worked on a couple pieces from that. I don't know if my teacher will have me move on to book 3 or not. We'll see. I also usually have one or two things not in the Alfred's book to work on, so I get some diversity in my practice. [/b]

Hi IrishMak, How long did it take to get through book two? And has the book helped you progress to a higher level overall. Just curious to see where I'll be when book two is complete.

Looking at the book (my teacher writes the date we start a page on top of it), it took me just under a year to get thru it. But then, I didn't always work steadily out of it- some pieces, as would be expected, took longer than others, and there were times when I didn't have things to work on from the book.

As for it helping, yes, I think it did. I was kind of "fumbling" for a while with my lessons- wasn't working out of any method book, and just picking stuff I was interested in or that my teacher brought in. But it wasn't structured enough for me to really feel I was making any sort of progress at any kind of steady rate. So we re-evaluated and decided to go back to a method book and just supplement it with other stuff. I actually started with Alred's 2- never did 1, but that was mainly because I already had 1+ years of lessons at that point and my teacher felt that book 1 would have been backtracking too much.

Bottom line: I do feel the Alfred's book has helped. I think (and my husband has said that he thinks I do) I play better now. I'm not sure if I would be where I am if I had just kept up with the random stuff like I was before. HTH.

_________________________
-Mak

1889 Mason & Hamlin screwstringer uprightKawai MP-4 digital

---------------------------When life hands you lemons, throw them back and add some of your own. Stupid life.

When I started playing in book 2, I had the mind set of "Are you kidding me?", the songs are so easy you can easily do 2-3 each lesson. So far the only one in there I liked was scherzo because you get to speed it up as you go along.

I like to follow things through though, I'd rather go through the whole thing than think on down the line that maybe I missed something.

I also do fabers and fabers is faster paced than Alfred's so it keeps me busy and entertained

_________________________
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.>>> Herman Munster

... man when i did book 2 and came to the first quarter and did a little bit more i advanced alot, before finishing the book, but i think music sheets from internet help me more. they are more difficult, entertaning ect. I often do these next to working in Alfred's and not just 1 the whole book but loads.

Well, I finished Book 1 after about 8 months with my teacher. She doesn't require perfection on songs. I'm of mixed feelings on this. On a certain song we'll work on timing and on another song we'll work on something else, but I'm always surprised when she says, OK, we can move on now. I'm kind of a "work harder," not "work smarter" kind of gal, so that throws me for a loop, a bit. I want to make sure my progress is proper. I mean, I'm paying a lot of money. On the other hand, if we work on something for a long time there seem to be diminishing returns. So, I don't know.

I'm not starting on Alfred 2 yet, or the Faber 2 (I just finished that one, too). Right now I'm working on Piano Town Lessons 3 (same as the 7-year-old girl who comes after me), Robert Vandall's Modal Expressions and a couple minuets here and there. I kind of miss the Alfred. I liked the songs in it.

My teacher is the same way she doesn't expect note perfect but she wants the dynamics, rythym and tempo perfect.

As she says note perfect will come later and I agree with her on this. Once you have the basic 3 years of music lessons down, your perfect notes will come much easier and by that time that's when you're probably going to play for pure pleasure so it makes sense that at that time you'll have tons of time to spend on polishing your pieces to perfection.

I looked at my next piece in alfred's last night and was able to play right through it, I don't understand why alfred's 2 is so easy, maybe it's to engrave the foundation we learned in book 1, I'm so looking forward to book 3. I'm ready for a challenge.

_________________________
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.>>> Herman Munster

On that note (the D on the word "fly"), you are playing that with your left hand finger 3. So you just bring it up into the treble staff to play that one note, then move right back down to the F maj chord in the bass staff.

_________________________
-Mak

1889 Mason & Hamlin screwstringer uprightKawai MP-4 digital

---------------------------When life hands you lemons, throw them back and add some of your own. Stupid life.

I just started this book today with my new teacher myself. I'm coming from a different series of books so Alfred's is different for me. There are some holes that needs to be filled and there are some things I'm ahead on that will be covered later on the book. So I should learn some new stuff but some will be a review for me.

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I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

You'll find alfred's 2 to be extremely easy. I was just starting to take 2 alfred pieces in addition to my faber when I quit my teacher but once I decide on a teacher I should move quickly through book 2.

_________________________
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.>>> Herman Munster

Originally posted by loly: Mark, tell me how is it going. tellllllllll me [/b]

Hi loly, thanks for asking...

Just really started book 2. Have only done "Down in the Valley" with the teacher and have it down well. Yesterday I snuck ahead and started working on "Tumbalalaika". I'm still using book #1 with some fine tuning of the "Entertainer" and major work still being done to "Amazing Grace"I'm also working on two Ludovico Einaudi pieces that are major long term projects as well as Moonlight Sonata in Dm.

As for book #2, I still don't have a feel for it yet, but I hope your right about it being easy and going well. Looking ahead,, it looks hard.

And finally, I decided if I make through book #3, I will reward myself with a grand piano. I then hope to be grand piano worthy...

I'm still having major problems trying to record. I have the worst "Red Dot" fever...

I had taken a bit of a break from Book 2 for a short bit. Picked up a couple short, easy classical pieces and another that I wanted to learn. I just started on the Canon last night at my lesson, so I am just about done with Book 2. Took me just about a year to get here. Of course, after last nite, I feel like some sort of genius or something. My teacher said she has 2 adult students who have been in Alfred's 2 for more than a year and a half- and one of them isn't even halfway thru it! LOL

_________________________
-Mak

1889 Mason & Hamlin screwstringer uprightKawai MP-4 digital

---------------------------When life hands you lemons, throw them back and add some of your own. Stupid life.

I had taken a bit of a break from Book 2 for a short bit. Picked up a couple short, easy classical pieces and another that I wanted to learn. I just started on the Canon last night at my lesson, so I am just about done with Book 2. Took me just about a year to get here. Of course, after last nite, I feel like some sort of genius or something. My teacher said she has 2 adult students who have been in Alfred's 2 for more than a year and a half- and one of them isn't even halfway thru it! LOL [/b]

Canon is such a great piece! I'm looking forward to it. Looking at book two, I'm betting it takes me a minimum of a year. I'll know more after a couple more weeks.

Well, I wouldn't go starting that too soon! We talked about maybe taking a break from method books completely for a while after I get thru Canon. She is going to go thru some music and set up an idea of what she thinks might be worth going with for a while. I also plan to look over the Alfred's 3 book and see what I think of it. Decisions, decisions....

_________________________
-Mak

1889 Mason & Hamlin screwstringer uprightKawai MP-4 digital

---------------------------When life hands you lemons, throw them back and add some of your own. Stupid life.

Originally posted by IrishMak: Well, I wouldn't go starting that too soon! We talked about maybe taking a break from method books completely for a while after I get thru Canon. She is going to go thru some music and set up an idea of what she thinks might be worth going with for a while. I also plan to look over the Alfred's 3 book and see what I think of it. Decisions, decisions.... [/b]

Sorry you have to do book three...I just started the thread for you...:lol:

Well, after my first lesson I was given "Down in the Valley" and "Tumbalalaika" to work on for my next lesson. Also, I was given the appropriate theory work and some more scale and chord exercises. Since I don't have a lesson this week I wished I would have asked for another couple of pieces to work on. Although, "Tumbalalaika" is giving me a little bit of a fit since I haven't used the pedal much up to this point and it's nothing but pedaling throughout! So I'll use the extra time to work on my lack of pedal experience.

I looked through the book and didn't see anything extremely intimidating. Some of the items are review such as sixteenth notes, 6/8 times, dotted-eight notes, etc. I'm not complaining because I need the work on the items mentioned, it just won't be brand new for me. Of course many items will be new such as actually reading dynamic indications (ff, mf) in the music. I'm really excited about it.

Several of the pieces I have worked on before in my previous books but they were different arrangements or in a different key. My past experience tells me I'll have an easier time with those pieces e.g. "Down in the Valley".

Also, I looked at Canon at the end of the book and I must say that it appears intimidating. For those who have already learned the piece, is it a good arrangement of Canon?

_________________________
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

I haven't had lessons for three weeks but I'm almost halfway through alfred's 2. I start lessons again this weekend so hopefully I'll move at a steady pace.

Odd I don't have Tumbalalaika in my book. I saw it in the regular book but it's not in the All in one adult course. Can someone scan it for me? When I went to the piano store inquiring about a teacher they tried to sell me a Roland and the teacher got the alfreds book and started playing Tumbalalaika, which I thought was quite nice.

I can't wait to start my lessons, I have 2 pieces from alfreds that I was working on and they're more than ready to go. weeeeeeeeee

_________________________
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.>>> Herman Munster

Odd I don't have Tumbalalaika in my book. I saw it in the regular book but it's not in the All in one adult course. Can someone scan it for me? When I went to the piano store inquiring about a teacher they tried to sell me a Roland and the teacher got the alfreds book and started playing Tumbalalaika, which I thought was quite nice.

I can't wait to start my lessons, I have 2 pieces from alfreds that I was working on and they're more than ready to go. weeeeeeeeee [/b]